Kerala: 117 NRI seats converted to general merit seats by government

Thiruvanathapuram: The state government’s step on Friday to take over 117 vacant seats under the NRI quota and admit general merit category students in those seats has come as a major setback for the self-financing medical college managements.

Provisions five and six in the medical admission prospectus were invoked by the State Controller of Entrance Examinations to transfer the vacant NRI seats into general merit category.

While general and community quota seat spot admissions were completed by Friday morning vacant NRI seats were over only by Friday evening.

Despite the Supreme Court guidelines stipulating that the admission procedure was to be complete by 31st August, it was extended to 1st September. Government sources claim that the extended admissions process on 1st September can be considered as the spill-over of that which began two days ago.

With vacant NRI seats getting transferred to general merit category, candidates who got admission to these seats can now study by paying Rs five lakh, as an annual fee.

The MBBS, BDS courses had 1,714 vacant seats. According to Entrance Commissioner, M T Reju, ‘ all vacant MBBS (1,088) seats were filled via 50-hour marathon spot admission process.’

Following ranks were categorized under the stated General, SC/ST and NRI divisions for spot admissions:

• Candidates up to 11,551 rank-General Category


• Candidates with ranks up to 12,617 and 25,594-SC/ST category


• Ranks up to 45,709 -NRI quota

Meanwhile, self-financing medical college managements have stood up to the government take over of the NRI quota seats.

MES President, Fazal Gafoor claimed that the Commissioner for Entrance Examination had no powers to take over NRI quota seats. While Management representatives said it was not legal to conduct spot admission on September 1, when the Supreme Court had set 31^st August as the last date for the same.

The government has justified its action saying that the conversion of NRI quota to general merit was done as there were aspirants coming forward for the Rs 20lakh tuition fee.

Health Minister, K K Shailaja said the government would intervene for students admitted in the converted general merit category if the self-financing college managements moved court on the issue.

The High Court has given directions for spot admissions to BDS course to be held on Saturday, reports TOI.